


Hope You're Happy (But Please Think of Me)

by xsilverdreamsx



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Feelings, Future Fic, Light Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-09
Updated: 2014-03-09
Packaged: 2018-01-15 04:55:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,783
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1292203
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xsilverdreamsx/pseuds/xsilverdreamsx
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There’s a warm sort of feeling to the place: the way it's sort of familiar and comforting confirms that Koganei’s in the right shop. </p><p>After all, there’s only one person in his life who’s ever made him feel that way.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hope You're Happy (But Please Think of Me)

**Author's Note:**

> Future-fic. Inspired by 2NE1’s “Happy”, which was looping throughout this fic. Also, I suck at titles.

Koganei removes his sunglasses and peers at the sign above the shop, before glancing down towards the piece of paper he’s holding in his hand to confirm that the name he’s looking at matches what he has.

It takes him a moment to verify that it is, but several long, silent seconds before he folds the paper carefully, tucking it back into his pocket. He stares at the door, at the colorful wind chimes hanging above it, and wonders, briefly, if it’s not too late to turn back now.

It hasn’t been an easy task, trying to locate this shop. Searching through the older part of this town, where the streets weave and intersect in confusion, sending him in circles before he ends up where he’s started. It’s taken him several hours, and might have taken him a lot longer than that had he not lucked out, getting directions from the old lady selling baked potatoes on the corner of the street.

Thinking about the effort he’s gone through to travel all the way here, to this little town that’s tucked away at the base of the mountains, hours away from Nagoya. Turning back now would just be like running away. He’s done that for far too long, trying to get away from his own fears, and from himself. It’s time to stop, he tells himself. It’s time to _change_.

Koganei takes a deep breath, and pushes the door open, stepping in.

Inside, the shop is narrow, and stretches towards the back. Somehow, it looks a lot bigger than it had seemed on the outside. It’s dimly lit with old fashioned hanging lamps, giving the place a quaint touch. Books and decorations are placed on shelves along wall on one side of the narrow space, with are several narrow tables placed beneath them that are currently occupied by a few patrons, sipping tea and reading the papers. Along the opposite side, a small wooden countertop that looks like a relic from the past adorns the area. The only thing that makes it look modern, perhaps, is the small laptop that’s on top of the wooden surface, standing out from the rest of the decor.

Realizing that he can’t exactly stand at the entrance of the shop forever (no one has taken notice of him yet, but they will, soon), Koganei steps further in and lets the door swing shut slowly behind him. He takes his seat at one of the tables and tugs his messenger bag onto his lap, hugging it - as if it’s his lifeline - and glancing around the small tea shop. There’s a warm sort of feeling to the place: the way it's sort of familiar and comforting confirms that he’s in the right shop. 

After all, there’s only one person in his life who’s ever made him feel that way.

“You’re not from our town, are you?” A small voice interrupts his thoughts, and he glances up, startled. There’s a small boy, perhaps aged seven or eight, standing next to his table, looking at him, bright-eyed.

Koganei blinks, taken aback by the frank yet accurate statement. “Er, no,” he answers. The boy gives him a scrutinizing look, and slides into the seat opposite him.

“Where are you from?” the boy demands. There’s a smudge of white paint on his cheek, Koganei notices.

Unprepared for the sudden interrogation, Koganei answers without thinking,“Tokyo.” It slips out before he can stop himself. In a way, Tokyo hasn’t been home for him in the past eleven years, not since he had dropped out of college and set his sights for a bigger world out there, moving across the ocean to chase another dream.

( _Running away_ , his inner conscience corrects unhelpfully. He squashes the voice in annoyance.)

“Papa says that there are buildings as tall as the mountains in Tokyo,” the boy says, wrinkling his nose. Disbelief lingers in his tone.

“He’s sort of right,” Koganei says, grinning at him. “Well, _almost_ as tall.”

“How do you get to the top? Do you fly? How many buildings are there? Can I go there?” Koganei blinks again, surprised by the barrage of questions. Before he can answer, he’s interrupted by someone leaning over and scooping the boy into their arms.

“You shouldn’t be bothering the customers, Kiyo-chan,” the woman, whom Koganei assumes is the boy’s mother, chides him as she wipes the smudge of white (which Koganei guesses is flour, and not paint as he had formerly thought) from his cheek with her thumb. It comes off easily, but she grimaces anyway. “I thought you wanted to help your father in the kitchen?” She sets him down, and kneels, bringing herself down to meet his eyes at his level. “If you hurry now, you can get a fresh pastry from the oven.”

Kiyo claps his hands in glee, and disappears towards the back of the shop through a doorway that Koganei hadn’t seen earlier.

With a polite bow, the woman apologizes to Koganei. “I’m very sorry if he had bothered you,” she tells him. “He’s usually very quiet, but he gets a little too excited around strangers.” She gave him a rueful smile.

“It’s alright,” Koganei tells her hurriedly. “I didn’t mind it.” He smiled a little, remembering when he had been just as bright-eyed and chatty as young Kiyo once. “He reminds me of myself a little.”

There’s a loud whoop from the back, where Koganei assumes is the kitchen. With a cluck of her tongue, the woman excuses herself - but not before taking his order for a hot cup of tea and a slice of butter cake - and hurries to check on the source of the noise.

His phone buzzes in his pocket. Koganei slips it out, glancing at the screen briefly and rolling his eyes before answering it. 

“If you’re trying to check on me to see if I’d chickened out, I’ll save you the trouble of asking. I’ve already found the shop.” 

He receives a chuckle from the other end in response. “ _Could have held out for a lot longer_ ,” Izuki’s voice sounds tinny, struggling to be heard through the poor reception on Koganei’s phone. “ _After all, we had a pool going. I had you pegged for at least another day before you made up your mind_.” 

“I thought we were friends, Izuki!” It feels a little like old times, the way he slips back into conversation with Izuki. They’ve only been communicating via email these past few weeks, so this is the first time he’s hearing Izuki’s voice after so many years.

Another chuckle follows this. “ _Hey, at least I didn’t put you down for a week_.” He pauses, before adding, sounding almost seventeen again. “ _That was Hyuuga, by the way_.”

“Hyuuga?” Koganei remembers Izuki mentioning in his emails that Hyuuga lived across the street from Izuki’s apartment. “Wait, does he know that I’m back here?” He hadn’t intended for anyone, let alone his old schoolmates, to know that he was back in Japan. In fact, if he hadn’t needed Izuki’s help - he wouldn’t have said anything to his old friend. He wasn’t ready to face them yet, not until he accomplished what he had come here to do.

“ _Relax_ ,” Izuki assures him. “ _He won’t say anything to the others. Riko’s been travelling to some conference for her dad, so it’s just Hyuuga and his kid at home these days_.” There’s a brief silence, before Izuki speaks again, this time sounding a little more serious. “ _Have you seen him yet?_ ”

Koganei leans back in his seat. “I just got here. But no, I haven’t seen him yet.” How long had it been, he thinks, since he had laid eyes on that face? The same face that had been filled with worry when Koganei had fallen and twisted his ankle in the middle of a basketball match; the same face that had lit up with joy when Koganei had announced that he had gotten into the same college together; the same face that had been filled with shock when Koganei had stood under the stars and poured his heart out in a quiet confession--

“ _\--hey-- are you even still there?_ ” Izuki voice brings him back into the present.

“Yeah, I’m--” he makes the mistake of glancing up, and finds himself staring at a familiar face that’s lined with shock.

The tray that lands on the floor bounces, once, twice, before landing face-down on top of the shattered pieces of the porcelain tea-cup.

“I have to go,” Koganei tells Izuki quietly, and hangs up, before getting up from his seat to face the other man who’s still staring at him, unmoving.

The air in the shop is heavy, the silence almost deafening. Feeling every eye in the shop on him, Koganei clears his throat nervously. “Hey, Mitobe,” he says, giving an awkward wave. “It’s been a while, hasn’t it?”

 

*  
“ _The stars are really pretty tonight, aren’t they?”_

_Koganei looks back towards Mitobe, whose face is turned up towards the night sky and smiling serenely as they make their way across the campus towards their dorm after a long study session at the library._

_Perhaps it’s because he’s tired, or that his mind is cluttered up with formulas and numbers and diagrams in preparation for tomorrow’s papers that Koganei doesn’t stop to think when he blurts out, loudly-- “I’m in love with you.”_

 

*  
Koganei is back in his seat, but this time, the spot opposite him is occupied by Mitobe.

Mitobe, whom he ran away from, eleven years ago when Koganei had confessed his feelings to him. It hadn’t been the embarrassment of the confession to a guy - Koganei hadn’t been gay, not then, although he considered himself open to the possibilities - but the look on Mitobe’s face that made Koganei wish he hadn’t said anything.

A look which had been full of shock, and as Koganei had reached out to grab his hand, to apologize and take back his words - Mitobe had taken a step back, avoiding his touch. And _that_ had been when Koganei had stood still, frozen in his spot, humiliated and heartbroken by the simple act of rejection.

It had taken Koganei some time to get over Mitobe. And he thought he _had_ moved on, until Izuki had dropped a careless remark in an email, one that had Koganei reliving his feelings and emotions again and placed him on a flight, two months later, back to Japan, hoping that somehow, seeing Mitobe again might gain him some closure, finally.

(Deep down, he knows that this is a lie, that even after all this time, no matter how hard Koganei tries to get rid of his feelings, he’s still very much in love with his best friend.)

 

*  
 _How’s Mitobe?_

_Didn’t you know? He married some girl, moved to some rural town. I hear he’s got a kid now._

 

*  
With a heavy sigh, Koganei leans back in his chair. 

“I’m sorry,” he mumbles, fingers clenched tightly around the straps of his bag. To his dismay, his eyes are beginning to sting, tears threatening to form at the edges. “It was… this was really selfish of me, but I just had to tell you again. I’m not expecting anything from you, I didn’t come here to ask you to choose me - you already have a happy life here - but I just -- I needed to tell you that I’m sorry. For running away, for leaving you.” Tears spill out, rolling slowly down his cheek. “For leaving my best friend, when I should have been there for you.” He closes his eyes tightly, trying to stop the flow of tears. Coming here was a mistake, he thinks, and he regrets making that stupid decision even more than ever, now that he’s sitting here and embarrassing himself, _crying_.

He doesn’t dare look up, afraid to see the sympathy in Mitobe’s eyes that he knows must exist. After all, Mitobe has his happy ending, hasn’t he? He has a lovely wife and child. Who is Koganei to come here, and ruin everything for him?

He hears the scraping sound of the chair being pushed back, and the soft scuffle of shoes against the stone floor as Mitobe gets up from his seat and walks past Koganei --

\-- but then warm fingers wrap around his wrists, tugging him up and out of his seat and Koganei’s eyes flutter open in surprise, just in time to see Mitobe’s determined look on his face before he finds himself being kissed.

It takes him several seconds to register that this is real, that yes, this is _Mitobe_ who has his lips pressed against Koganei’s; his hand splayed against the small of Koganei’s back, pulling him in closer so that they’re pressed together, chest-to-chest. It’s Mitobe, _finally_ , whom after all these years when Koganei was alone and pining after him and subsequently trying to forget him, who is now, in this very moment, holding him in his arms as if he never intends to let him go.

 

*  
I love you, _Mitobe writes, his tears staining the letter that he’s writing to Koganei._ Please come back to me.

_The letter stays hidden between the pages of Koganei’s favorite book, hidden beneath the folded clothes in the bottom drawer of Mitobe’s dresser._

 

*  
Later that night when they’re sitting side-by-side, Koganei leans back on his elbows and glances up at the stars, heaving a sigh of relief.

He’s heard the sad story from Mitobe, of how he had married someone his parents had set him up with, and had a child with her, only to wake up one day to find out that she had left. It had taken him months to locate her again, and that had been when she had confessed that she didn’t love him, that she couldn’t love him when he was still hung up on Koganei leaving. It was then when he had realized how he felt for Koganei. 

The divorce papers had been signed, but the custodial rights for their son had been awarded to him. It was a fresh start for her, and for Mitobe, he loved Kiyo dearly. In the end, he had moved to his grandparents’ old town, and set up a tea shop here while occasionally helping them run their farming business with his cousin, whom Koganei had met earlier.

“I’ve been really stupid, haven’t I?” Koganei asks aloud. He wonders if the stars that he’s looking at are the same ones he had seen eleven years ago when he had first told Mitobe how he felt about him.

In a way, it feels like time hasn’t changed much. He feels alive again, his heart beating a little faster as he laces his fingers through Mitobe’s, enjoying the warmth. Mitobe, in turn, is looking at him with a fond expression, one that reminds Koganei of how he used to look at Koganei during high school. 

It’s almost funny how he’s never realized what that look had meant, until now.

Mitobe chuckles quietly, and leans close, nuzzling into his neck. With a giggle, Koganei tries to push him away only to find himself being pushed down, flat on his back, as the other man leans over him. In the dark, it’s impossible to see the expression on his face, but he can feel Mitobe’s breath against his lips, hot in contrast to the cold night air surrounding them.

It’s easy to push himself up a little, to capture Mitobe’s lips in a fierce kiss, one that has Mitobe breathing heavily and pressing back down against Koganei just as intensely. It goes on for another minutes, or perhaps more - until the temperature drops further and the both of them are forced to move into Mitobe’s bedroom, where Koganei spends the rest of the night mapping out every part of Mitobe’s body, committing them to memory.

 

*  
Sometimes it’s the words that aren’t said that causes so much heartbreak, and pain. Perhaps if Koganei had stayed, or if he had said something else - things might have been different. Or if Mitobe had said something, perhaps Koganei would have returned earlier.

It’s all a bundle of feelings of what-ifs and regrets that is easy to fall into, but when Koganei looks at the way Mitobe hugs Kiyo, and the way he leans over to peck Koganei on the lips, in front of his son, he realizes he wouldn’t change a thing.

Mitobe is, after all, a man of little words, but his actions have always spoken louder than what he has to say. It’s the small things that make up the sum of who he is, and Koganei plans to spend the rest of his life re-discovering all of them.

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: posted this at 6 in the morning unbeta'ed so i'm sorry if there are mistakes. I don't own the characters, just the stories.


End file.
